As the May provincial election nears, a pro-Liberal group has fired an online shot at the NDP, and drawn some angry return fire.
The skirmish started with a January 28 news release announcing “Vote Smart BC,” a TV and online campaign sponsored by the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association.
The release quoted Phil Hochstein, president of the ICBA:
“Our members are family-owned construction businesses and with the current global economic downturn, we want to remind people that our province can't afford a return to the disastrous policies of the NDP.
“What’s different about these ads is that we’re taking a lighthearted approach to the NDP record. The underlying message about the economy is serious, but these times call for a little bit of humour to remind people that continued strong economic management is essential for our province to weather the storm.”
The VoteSmart BC website has now provoked a countersite, VoteSmartBC Exposed, which attacks Hochstein as “a well-known anti-union contractor on the far right of the BC political spectrum.”
In a letter that went out on Friday, NDP president Jeff Fox used VoteSmart BC as a springboard for a fund-raising appeal:
“One of Gordon Campbell’s closest backers has launched an attack on the NDP while hiding behind a campaign called Vote Smart BC. It is believed that this hidden anti-NDP force plans to spend as much as $350,000 on these ads before spending limits take effect on February 13.
“The Independent Contractors Business Association has donated more than $300,000 to the BC Liberals since 1996, and head Phil Hochstein has advocated a number of controversial positions, including weakening the Agricultural Land Reserve, opposing the Kyoto Accord, and tearing up legal contracts with workers....
“I have sent this note to tens of thousands of supporters of the BC NDP and I am not asking for a large contribution, just a quick one. Please give what you can afford, right now, to help get this message out. I need just $10 from you by February 12 to get this message out in time.”
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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Luke Skywalker
3 years ago
Vote Smart TV Ads...
Actually those cheeky TV ads have drawn some laughs around the water cooler.
They must be effective if the NDP wastes money, time and resources to re-create the ad as well as a new website to refute the ads, albeit only political junkies would frequent their website.
It doesn't matter much anyway. In ~6 days, the Liberals gag law comes into to effect to banish the ads forever.
RickW
3 years ago
I wonder what pi$$ed him off.........?
Phil Hochstein is an EX Trade-Union member.
But (most likely) the only reason he is pro-Liberal is because, for construction, that is going to be the only game in town for the next while, what with "stimulus packages" abounding.............
SharingIsGood
3 years ago
Laughs
I imagine that the ad does create some laughs for all the Liberal/reform/Conservative party members around their white collar water cooler. I found it a tasteless misrepresentation of the BC NDP people I have met. When the Liberal gag law gomes into effect,I won't have stopped gagging over this one. The ad shows just how low Liberal supporters will sink. Those who like this kind of thing are no better than the people who produced the original ad. I hope that the NDP gives it back to them good and hard.
Seven years of huge commodity pprices, and the Liberals have nothing to show for selling off the province but $50-60 billion of future bills to be paid. I don't think that the Liberals can win this election by telling the truth. They will have to lie like in the past two elections if they are to have any chance at all.
Like I have said before, I belong to no political party. If the Liberals (under Campbell) were not the liars/cheats/scoundrels they have proven to be - year after year, I could have voted for them. It's time to throw them out. They have only self-interest at heart.
Rod Smelser
3 years ago
The KISS Principle in Action
I saw the ad on TV and it impressed me as one of those political spots that's done up by someone who assumes everyone is an idiot. Rather like the provincial government's Best Place on Earth spots.
quarry bay
3 years ago
The ads show ..........
That the BC Liberals are soooo desperate,CKNW airwaves are awash in ads for the Campbell Liberals(rather annoying)
Not annoying for the content,annoying for the constant playing,it`s giving me a headache,just like Campbell``s carbon tax/global warming onslaught ad campaign,it had the reverse effect.
Campbell and Abbott had a press release about a Surrey/tower emergency P3 to be built(on friday)....
Well,Campbell pulled THAT CON 2 weeks before the last election with the same announcement,
In fact,according to the 2005 announcement(photo=op) the tower was suppossed to have been built by the end of 2008(Campbell doesn`t even have a builder yet.
Internal polling in Surrey(over the Campbell lies) about building hospital infrastructure is bleak for the BC Liberals.
Fool me once,shame on you,Campbell`s clock has run out in Surrey! In Burnaby,delta,Vancouver,maple ridge,Nanaimo,Oak Bay,Prince George,Chilliwak,Coquitlam etc etc etc..
Http://www.timescolonist.com/Sports/Megaprojects+megaworries/1260264/story.html
Luke,Wilfred,Sir Johna ---According to all polls, Ipsos/Angus reid and others 80% of the people of BC think Gordon Campbell is....
"Not honest or Trustworthy"
And you can`t advertise your way out of that.
quarry bay
3 years ago
I messed up the link...
Here it it
http://www.timescolonist.com/Sports?megaprojects+megaworries/1260261/story.html
Here is the angus Reid Poll.....
Check out the questions about honest and trustwothyness.
http://www.angus-reid.com/uppdf/2008.11_15_BCPolitics_1.PDF
quarry bay
3 years ago
Dis-regard the 2 links above......
Here are the links,I put my glasses on!
http://www.timescolonist.com/Sports?megaprojects+megaworries/1260261/story.html
Here is the Angus-reid Poll questions
http://www.angus-reid.com/uppdf/2008.11.15_BCPolitics_1.PDF
quarry bay
3 years ago
Maybe I better have a drink...
http://www.timescolonist.com/Sports/megaprojects+megaworries/1260261/story.html
quarry bay
3 years ago
Hello friends.......
Sorry about the links but,just remember this,People of BC don`t trust Gordon Campbell
People/Voters know that Campbell is a liar,dishonest,law-breaker!
You can`t advertise your way out of that,people have tuned out Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals.
No other Premier has lied more than Gordon Campbell.
The Liberal rats are getting testy......
Wally Oppall had a freak-out attack on the CKNW yesterday(John Macomb show)Wally Oppal is ready to snap.
All that is left of the Campbell Liberals is one last burst/belch of Volcano dust,no heat,no fire,just a little bit of ......
BAD GAS
Rod Smelser
3 years ago
WHAT ABOUT HOCHSTEIN'S UNION PAST?
" ... VoteSmartBC Exposed, which attacks Hochstein as “a well-known anti-union contractor on the far right of the BC political spectrum.”
I wonder why the counter site doesn't mention the fact that Hochstein once worked for the building trades unions, left them in disfavour and dispute, and has been getting even for the past thirty years.
I think if people understood that this supposedly great philosophical and economic difference is at bottom a case of petty, personality politics, it would help them to understand the extreme, pointless bitterness and wacky, drivellish dialogue that characterizes so much of BC provincial politics.
Wait a minute. Maybe that's why it's not mentioned. Neither side wants to end the childishness!